Regional and city councils monitor recreational water quality to identify risks to public health from disease-causing organisms and toxic algae. People can then make informed decisions about where, when, and how they use rivers and the marine environment for recreation.
The map below shows the monitoring sites coloured by the proportion of days predicted as suitable for swimming. These predictions are based on an indicator bacteria ‘nowcast’ criteria model approach implemented in December 2018 and expert judgement. Sites with ongoing cautions for part of the bathing area are marked with a star (⋆).
Scroll/zoom on the map to find areas of interest, hover on site circles and click on them for more information/links to data, and use the top-right “Season:” toggle to compare swimming suitability over the “Summer” bathing period (last week of October to end of March), “Winter” (everything not in “Summer”), and “All” samples combined.
In addition to the 87 sites with suitable for swimming predictions above, this online reporting tool provides the results of the field surveillance monitoring data up to 30 June 2023 for:
See methods and resources for more details on sampling methodology and useful recreation water quality links.
This web report may be cited as: GW 2023. Recreational water quality annual report 2022/23. Greater Wellington.
A static PDF version of this report can be viewed and downloaded here.